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Enhancing airway assessment of patients with head and neck pathology using virtual endoscopy
Author(s) -
Imran Ahmad,
Oliver Keane,
Sarah Muldoon
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
indian journal of anaesthesia/indian journal of anaesthesia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.645
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 0976-2817
pISSN - 0019-5049
DOI - 10.4103/ija.ija_588_17
Subject(s) - medicine , airway , airway management , endoscopy , intubation , head and neck , laryngoscopy , population , radiology , surgery , intensive care medicine , environmental health
Studies have demonstrated that poor assessment and planning contribute to airway complications and that current airway assessment strategies have a poor diagnostic accuracy in predicting difficult intubation in the general population. Patients with head and neck pathology are at higher risk for difficulties during airway management and are more likely to need emergency surgical access. Therefore, thorough assessment of this group of patients is mandatory. The addition of virtual endoscopy (VE) to clinical history and computerised tomography imaging has been shown to improve diagnostic accuracy for supraglottic, glottic and infraglottic lesions and has a positive influence in formulating a more cautious and thorough airway management strategy in this high-risk group of patients. This article reviews whether VE can enhance airway assessment in patients with head and neck pathology and help reduce airway complications.

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